Mike Florio reports that Florence will receive a $1.5M signing bonus and base salaries of $1.5M in 2012 and $1.5M in 2013, with an additional $1M of incentives available in $250K increments based upon 2012 playing time.

Florence had visited the Titans earlier in the week and was reportedly also pursued by the Chargers, who originally drafted him in the second round (46th overall) of the 2003 Draft out of Tuskegee. The 31-year-old spent five seasons in San Diego, the past three in Buffalo, and he played for Jacksonville in 2008 under then-Jaguars coach and new Denver DC Jack Del Rio.

In nine seasons, Florence has started 96 of the 135 games he's appeared in, with 17 interceptions, including two pick-sixes, plus 441 tackles. He started all sixteen games for the Bills in 2011, grading out at minus-10.9 overall according to PFF (-3.5 run, -0.2 pass rush, -4.2 pass coverage, -3.0 penalty) on 1,022 snaps.

Tracy Porter, whom the Broncos signed in March, was graded similarly at minus-10.4 last season (-1.7 vs. run, -0.9 pass rush, -7.2 pass coverage, -0.6 penalties) with one QB hit, 62 tackles, two assists, eight missed tackles, and 11 stops on almost 200 fewer snaps than Florence played (826).

Denver’s defense played great last year. Then obviously the offseason additions with Peyton Manning coming in are huge — you don’t really see franchise quarterbacks on the free agent market. Peyton chose to come here. I just think it’ll be a good fit for me, coming in, playing with one of the best corners to ever play the game in Champ Bailey and a very aggressive and young defensive front. I just thought it would be a great fit for me. I can possibly end my career here with a Super Bowl ring. I felt Denver would be a great place for me.

I just thought as a unit, as a whole on defense, guys were solid. They were competing back in the secondary. You’ve got to have three corners in this league to match up with those receivers. I just thought it was overall a good fit for me. I’m excited to get out there and start working with the guys.

As Andrew Mason sees it, Florence and Porter will compete with each other for a starting role opposite Champ Bailey, with the loser potentially pushing Chris Harris out of the nickel and into the dime role. It may be hard to imagine a smaller role for Harris after a standout rookie campaign, but the addition of Florence undoubtedly hurts the chances of third-year players Syd'Quan Thompson and Cassius Vaughn making the team.

In the NFL very rarely do you see just 2 receivers line up. Now with the bigger TE, more athletic, you need more defensive backs to line up.

The offseason additions with Peyton Manning, obviously, you have a guy like that playing the QB position, it gives your team a great opportunity to go out and win ballgames. With the defense they already have in place there, I thought it was a great fit.

Denver had flirted with the possibility of acquiring veteran corner Asante Samuel prior to the draft, but Philadelphia ended up dealing him to Atlanta after Samuel and the Broncos were unable to agree to a renegotiated contract.

I think the combination of Manning and Elway might leave some guys a little star-struck! One thing I've learned by paying attention to player's reaction to the Manning story this season is that these guys are sometimes as much of a fan of the game as we are. When they see a guy like Elway go out with multiple SB wins, that's what they'd all like to accomplish. And when they see a guy like Manning play better than their own QB year after year, that makes them jealous. I think this works on defensive players even better than offensive players. A guy like Manning is a guy you hate when he's picking apart your team's defense, but the more you hate him the more you secretly wish he'd be doing that for your team, while you stand on the sideline watching some other poor sap get burnt.

Posted by Hercules_Rockefeller on 2012-05-11 10:15:14

$15million over 3 years is a contract I am glad they stayed away from

Posted by Steve Williams on 2012-05-11 02:58:34

Sure is nice to see FA's signing upon first visit again these days. Remember when they used to do that, back when Denver was contending annually? For the last five or so years, it seems like every nice FA that came to visit turned around and signed somewhere else...

Posted by broncosmontana on 2012-05-11 02:04:35

Like the other thread said, any list that includes Peyton Freaking Manning looks darn good to me

Posted by Dennis on 2012-05-10 22:02:06

Pretty healthy list of experienced FA's, huh? Was wondering how many of these would be here if we didn't get Manning....then I read the Florence comment to Klis.

Pretty obvious what the front office is trying to do: SB wins immediately.

Posted by John Tomasik on 2012-05-10 21:52:56

They've alternated between saying Denver was out of room under the cap and under their self-instituted budget. The former is absolutely untrue (still plenty of room), while the latter proves more untrue by the week.

Posted by Douglas Lee on 2012-05-10 20:49:34

I thought Legwold and Klis said that the Broncos had spent all of their cap room and couldn't possibly sign any more free agents.

Posted by AldenBrown on 2012-05-10 20:40:15

Should have signed Aaron Ross, period.

Posted by Underwear on 2012-05-10 20:30:24

Um, so adding depth and competition to a position means that our best corner is going to move to safety?